THE LEVEL AND COST OF LIVING 



157 



head of each bed is a wooden chest. Clothes are on lines 

 across the corners. Along the south wall are large piles of 

 garlic waiting to be braided. 



B is for Santos and storage. A large table opposite the 

 door has on it a painted wood cross; it and the table arc 

 covered with flowers. Along the north wall is a bench 

 for visitors and along the south wall sacks of corn, beans, 

 and coffee (for in this house supplies are bought weekly 

 instead of in small quantities daily). The agricultural 

 tools are also kept in this room. 



The sweat bath (C) is anne.xed; it is 6 by 7 feet, but 

 around it is built a 9 by 9 house 9 feet high. Inside the 

 bath are the pottery vessels used in bathing and there are 

 benches along three walls. The chicken house (D) is 6 by 

 7 feet and 4 or 5 feet high, with a cane door, and poles for 

 perches. 



Except in heavy rains, firewood in quantity is stacked 

 in the j'ard and covered with thatch. The house is illumi- 

 nated with kerosene (most of the time) and pitch pine. 



No. 28. Yard 24 by 18 feet; under an orange tree at 

 one edge there is a bench for occasional dining. 



B, the 8-year-old kitchen house, is 18 by 15 feet with an 

 18-foot roof and 5-foot walls; the doorway (fitted with a 

 hinged door) is so low that one must stoop to pass through. 

 The fireplace is in the southeast corner; a second fire is 

 occasionally made nearby. A high table of canes supported 

 by implanted posts holds pots, dishes, and the basket of 

 tortillas. A branch implanted near the fire has drinking 

 cups and gourds hanging on its twigs. There are some 

 dishes of china. The grinding stone leans against the 

 wall nearby. The north side of the house is used to store 

 corn. Because this kitchen house is dark, food is carried 

 to the Saint's house where the family dines. 



The annex A is 15 by 9 feet, with 6-foot walls and a 10- 

 foot roof, and has on the west wall a bed of boards on 

 posts in which sleep the three members of the family. On 

 the north wall is a chest on a low table, in which documents 

 and valuables are kept. Above the head of the bed hang 

 a rifle and a machete, and at the south end of the room a 

 line runs the whole width; on it clothing of the whole 

 family hangs. Under the bed is garlic to be braided. 

 Tools are hung on the porch. 



The Saint's house (D), built in 1931, is 12 by 12, the 

 walls under 5 feet and the roof 9 or 10 feet high. It has a 

 hinged wooden door. The floor is covered with pine 

 needles. The saints are on a table against the north wall, 

 adorned with flowers. On another table before it, the 

 shaman performs his rituals. Benches line the walls. 



C is the oldest house (12 years in 1936) and decrepit, 

 with a door of canes, used only to keep adobes and other 

 materials with which to build a new house. The house 

 is 15 by 12 feet, walls 6 feet, and roof 15 feet high. 



Kerosene (and candles before the Saints) furnish illumi- 

 nation. 



The house belongs to family X; the two families have 

 separate kitchens and constitute economically different 

 households. Y therefore simply rooms here. (1 and 5 

 happen to be cousins.) 



No. 37. Yard 18 by 18 feet, parts planted with flowers. 



B is both bedroom and reception room. A house 2 years 

 old, 20 by 15 feet with 9-foot walls and roof 18 feet high, 



has porch pillars based on cut-stone, a spacious wooden 

 door made to slide open, and two windows (front and back) 

 fitted with sliding wood panels. The house was originally 

 built when 1 led the masked dancers at the titular fiesta 

 and had to receive his companions. There are two 

 bought beds, one in the northwest and one in the southwest 

 corner, in each of which sleeps one of the families. Next 

 to each bed is a wooden chest for clothes; other clothing 

 hangs over the foot of each bed. On the walls are pictures 

 from magazines and newspapers. 



A is a 12- by 9-foot annex of 12-foot walls of board and 

 cane with a wooden hinged door, built shortly after the 

 house and used as a storeroom for large pots, tools, boxes, 

 etc. 



E, 9 by 9 feet with 6-foot walls and a 12-foot roof ridge, 

 is the 8-year old kitchen house used by family X. The 

 outside front wall is plastered to present a smooth surface. 

 There is a hinged wood door, and on the porch a bench. 

 The fire is in the center of the west wall, with pots on 

 either side; dishes are in a basket on the floor or hung from 

 wooden pegs in the wall. Suspended in the center of the 

 room is a 3- by iK-foot shelf for food. There are several 

 stools on which members of the family sit while eating. 



The adobe oven (D) is enclosed in a house with walls 

 4],i feet high and roof 9 feet high. The part not occupied 

 by the oven (6 by 6 feet) is used by family Y as a kitchen. 

 It has a door of canes. The fire is in the southwest corner. 

 No rent is paid, but when necessary 5 works for 1 in his 

 fields. The s%veatbath (6 by 6 feet) and privy are used 

 by both families. Family X uses kerosene exclusively for 

 light at night. 



No. 94. Yard, 23 by 23 feet, surrounded by a cane fence. 



B is 15 by 12 feet, walls 6 feet and roof 12 feet high, 

 with a door of canes. Near the fireplace, in the northwest 

 corner, are three kinds of shelves: a 2-shelf cupboard of 

 cornstalks for dishes and small pots, a board shelf sup- 

 ported by pegs in the wall, and another suspended from 

 the rafters. The latter two have food on them. Large 

 pots and grinding stones are on the floor. In a bed 7 by 

 4H feet of boards on posts set in the floor in the southeast 

 corner sleeps 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. In a small bed of the same 

 kind in the southwest corner 1 sleeps alone. At the foot 

 of this bed is a locked wood chest of documents. On the 

 south wall hangs a paper carton with clothes of the older 

 boys. Tools are in the northeast corner and hung on the 

 walls. In the northeast corner, canes over the rafters 

 hold garlic to be braided. The only light used in the house 

 is that of the fire. 



In the 6 by 7 and 4-foot high sweat bath (A) there are 

 no vessels. Pots from the kitchen are brought for bathing. 



No. 95. Yard, 30 by 30 feet, with many flowers and 2 

 beehives. A second house (for saints and ritual activities) 

 had collapsed shortly before 1936; materials for a new one 

 were being collected, and meanwhile the santos were kept 

 on the porch of C, and taken in at night. ("It would be 

 wrong to keep them in the kitchen in the day or outside 

 at night.") 



The house, 18 by 18 feet, with the roof ridge 15 feet 

 from the floor, and the walls a little over 6 feet high, is 12 

 years old. It is of whitewashed mass-adobe, with a thatch 



